Since I am obviously making scrapbook pages from old photo’s, I have found another artwork/photo to include in a scrapbook page.
Finding the perfect sketch, paper, and alpha stickers was easy and the page came together in about 15 minutes. It took longer to adhere the alpha stickers than anything else.
I am so happy I have decided to use sketches to scrap my mountain of old photos. Everyday I feel like I have accomplished something!!!
COVID had a way of changes things especially for school kids. My grandson, Weston, was in the first grade when things started to change. He went from being in a classroom with his friends to being at home with his family. One of his assignments was to send a letter or artwork to a family member. He worked real hard on this assignment making sure to send things out. I was thrilled when I received my in the mail!!!
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my picture he so lovingly made for me, but I knew i didn’t want it to get lost in a box somewhere. I found a sketch in 525 NEW AND INSPIRING SCRAPBOOKING SKETCHES that works perfect for my needs. Now, the picture he drew for me will now be in a family scrapbook album.
So something good did happen for me in 2020!
I am so proud of my granddaughter, Victoria. She finished her high school career on November 11th, 2020!!! Months ahead of her classmates!!!! Although the graduation isn’t until sometime in May or June, she is done!!! Her future is as bright as she wants it to be. I’m sure she will thrive in whatever direction she chooses to go in.
I love you Victoria!!!!
Family is everything. Family is always there for us in times of joy and sadness. I am like everyone else. I’m proud of my family. I love my family.
Today I want to share a scrapbook page I made today. The photos are of my grandson Weston, my granddaughter Victoria, and my daughter, Kimmie. They give me joy. But in this picture, I am most proud of my daughter. She is a certified teacher currently working as a teacher assistant for special ed children. She worked real hard to get her degree and then to test for the teaching certificate. She is proof that if you work hard toward your goal, you can achieve it.
I must admit, I never knew that when the kids are having their school pictures made, they also take pictures of the teachers/teacher assistants!!!!
I can’t decide what I want to do for tomorrows scrapbook page adventure. I will either being doing one scrapbook page about my middle granddaughters senior picture or possibly our 2010 Galveston quick trip that was cut short. I guess we shall all see what tomorrow brings.
Happy New Year. I hope everyone had a wonderful time over the holidays.
I thought I would have my first blog of the year 2020 be a review of the highs and lows of 2019 that I encountered.
It seems that my life was rather boring during the first half of the year, but things really picked up when the countdown to our August Carnival Dream cruise got near. Of course, things were really busy leading up to the cruise and we truly enjoyed our time away. I plan on doing a more in depth review of our cruise including the scrapbook pages I will be making to coincide with this cruise.
Immediately following this cruise, sometime in late August, early September, my mother fell in her apartment while trying to reach something in the cabinet above the refrigerator. It is important to know that my mother has vascular dementia and she definitely does not think things through. By this I mean, she was using a dining room chair with rollers to try to reach whatever it was that she was looking for and fell. She finally told me about her fall several days later when her back was hurting her so bad, she could not stand the pain. I took her to the emergency room to be evaluated and she ended up there for several days then transferred to a rehab facility. Needless-to-say, she has now been moved to an assisted living facility less than a mile from the house. Definitely the first low point of the year.
At least the month of September ended with a celebration for my youngest granddaughter’s 3rd birthday! She is just so precious to us.
Then October rolled around and my husband had another birthday. So what did we do? We spent time cleaning out my mothers old apartment!!! It was a family affair and it took a lot of work. I can honestly say my house is busting at the seems. Well, at least my craffice is, LOL
Up next for October, my one and only grandson broke his arm. His right arm. The one he uses for everything. He was definitely a trooper during the entire experience and we are so grateful that he did not have to have surgery. Being the Mimi that I am, I immediately went to the store and got him one of the large pie size cookies for him to enjoy.
Unfortunately, October didn’t end so well as my first granddaughter had to have an emergency appendectomy. And to make matters worse for her and her mother (my daughter) was very sick and not able to take her to the hospital. I was more than happy to take her and make sure she got the proper care she needed. The procedure was done as an outpatient so she was able to go home after she started to come out of the anesthesia.
On November 15th, I booked another cruise. This time we will be going on an 8-night cruise on the Carnival Freedom. I was so excited to book this cruise and I was able to keep it a secret until we had family birthdays with his family on November 17th. I asked his sister Sharon to give him a folder that had the cruise information in it. He had no idea. This will be the second cruise we have gone on that does not go to Cozumel. But it is also an itinerary we have never done.
Thanksgiving was spent decorating my mothers apartment for Christmas while she was at her sister’s apartment. I am so happy she loved how everything turned out. I made the garlands that were on her front door and over her windows.
What is December without taking your fur babies to have a picture made with Santa???? Somehow I didn’t get very many pictures of Christmas, but I do know that we had a wonderful day spent with family.
Which brings us to today. And the only thing I can say about today is that I have re-started Noom. And I had to work. But that’s ok. I love my job. My plans for the new year are to work on scrapbook pages, take more pictures, and enjoy every day.
Happy New Year one and all. I hope everyone had an enjoyable night. We did nothing. Absolutely. Nothing. And that was fine with me and my hubby.
Today begins a new year with renewed hope and for some, one word to focus on for the year. I have heard about people selecting one word for inspiration for the year and I decided I would give it a try this year and will make a scrapbook of my “progress” during the year. My plan is to do a weekly blog about my week and how the word I selected has impacted my daily life.
I have chosen the word FAITH. Why? Because I need to learn to have faith in myself to be the best I can be. This year, I want to use faith to become closer to God. I want to have faith in myself to be a better wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, just an overall better person. I want to have the faith in myself to do the things I need to do to accomplish things daily to improve myself and my family and our lives. I want faith to guide me daily.
I do have some fun things planned this year and I also intend to blog more often about things going on with our lives and our travel plans that have been set in motion. I will also blog about our November 2018 Carnival Vista cruise. There will also be a blog about a very big secret I kept from my husband.
For now, I just want to wish anyone reading this a very Happy New Year.
Some days I feel like I’m in a rut. Doing the same things over and over and over. Like my morning coffee. Like deciding on continuing with the diet or try something else. In all honesty, today I didn’t eat anything until around 5 pm. And then it wasn’t much. But I’m just not feeling myself. I’m feeling bloated. And with that feeling comes the feeling of being defeated. Hopefully tomorrow, these feeling will be gone and I will have a much better day and week on my modified Keto journey. At least that is what I am hoping for.
Today was a fun and somewhat productive day. I managed to design our tumblers for our upcoming Carnival Vista cruise. It is the first time I have used my Cricut Explore Air to cut vinyl. I have completed one tumbler and even though it isn’t perfect, it will work perfectly for my needs.
My plan is to put things on the tumblers that are what my family wants on theirs. So the variety includes a cruise ship, a couple of dolphins, a whale, a flamingo, a ships wheel, and a 3 anchors. And each tumbler will also have everyone’s name on them. Everything has been cut but I have not had the chance to put them on the tumblers. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow.
This afternoon was fun. We had family birthday’s at my sister-in-law and brother-in-laws house. We celebrated birthdays for my brother-in-law, my daughter, and my granddaughter Victoria. This is always fun and there is always plenty of food.
On our way home, we had to stop at CVS to pick up a prescription for my mother. She wasn’t expecting us to come over, but when we got there she was happy to see us. She didn’t know she had a prescription ready but she told me she was out of a lot of her medications. My mother’s dementia seems to be getting worse. She hasn’t driven in over, no longer manages her medications, and does not manage her finances. But she thinks she can do anything and everything. Vascular Dementia is sad to witness. We know that one day we will have to make some decisions about where she will be living. But for right now, she is able to take care of her basic needs. She does not cook for herself but we make sure she has plenty to eat.
My mother is very excited about our upcoming cruise. Of course she thinks she needs new everything for the trip!!! While I was at her house, we did some online shopping and got her some casual things to wear in the evening. Now all she needs are some shorts and some dainty things and she should be good to go!!!
My hope for this cruise is that she makes some memories that will stay in her mind for a very long time. My mom, daughter, granddaughters, and I will be making scrapbook pages after our cruise. I hope that will help her with retaining the memories we make.
I feel refreshed and somewhat guilty about today. It was 100% a total cheat day. I needed it. I needed to get rid of the headache. I needed to not worry about making sure I was eating the right things. I needed to now worry about anything. I needed a day off. I needed a ME day. And I’m not sorry about it. In fact, before I go to bed, I plan on having some vanilla ice cream with Hershey’s syrup on top!!! Tomorrow, I will have my morning coffee and a sensible Keto friendly breakfast then I will fast.
Today was fun!!! Everything started out like normal… headache with a coffee chaser! No breakfast because I knew I was going to have lunch out with my granddaughter Victoria and my hubby. I just did know where we would be eating at. It would be Victoria’s choice.
We picked her up around noon but before we left on our adventure, we spent a little time with my daughter and grandson. Don’t want to leave anyone out!!! When we left their house, we didn’t know if we would go to the AT&T store before or after lunch but we knew that Victoria wanted Mexican food. Good choice!!!! We ended up going to the AT&T store first, mostly to avoid the lunch crowd at El Fenix.
It is always fun going to the AT&T store. We went to take care of Victoria’s new cell phone. Once that was taken care of, we also switched from Uverse to Direct TV at a huge savings for us and we upgraded (???) our cell phone service to unlimited everything. AND we are updating our internet as well. But no new phones.
Next on our agenda of two things to do was lunch. It was an easy drive across the street to El Fenix. As someone who is use to having tortillas, rice, beans, and chips every day, it was nice to indulge even if it was only for one day. I ordered the cheese enchilada and tamale that came with rice and beans. We also had queso for the table. But to be good, I had unsweetened ice tea! But I guess that didn’t really do any good since I bought pralines as we were leaving the restaurant. When I cheat on a diet, I really cheat!
While we were eating, I decided to make a trip to a nearby mall. We needed to walk off our food and it would be good exercise. Plus I wanted to look for some clothes for our cruise. Well… we walked, I shopped. We walked, I shopped. I’m sure you get the picture, right? I only went to 5 stores but only bought at 4. But I only bought stuff that was on sale with the exception of one thing for Victoria, a cover for her new cell phone.
First stop was Old Navy. I was looking for shorts. I really didn’t think that would be difficult. I found 2 pairs. Only. Two. Pairs. And they were nothing I couldn’t live without. But I did buy 3 shirts. I cannot wait to wear them on the cruise!!! Also, Jim found a pair of matching socks he thought would be cute for our grandson and son-in-law.
Next two stops were purchases for Jim. At Sears he found a pair of Wranglers that were regularly $40 something and he paid a little over $18. That was a good buy and he was so happy with himself! At Dillards, he scored a pair of shorts and a pair of slacks that were at a very good price!!! He was very impressed of the selection they had in his size!
Our last stop at the mall was at Shoe Dept. Encore. I left there with a pair of Sperry’s that I have been wanting for a long time. I was thrilled that they had them in my size and for $24.99!!! Definitely another good buy for me!!!
As we started to walk to the car, it decided to rain. Since my mother’s apartment is on the way to my daughters house, we decided to let the rain pass at her place. I figured it would be a good time to do some online shopping for her as she as some clothes she really needs to get. Unfortunately, her electricity kept flickering on and off which would turn off her computer. We will have to complete her shopping later.
The weather finally let up and we left to go to my daughters for a while before we headed home. Now that we are home, we are very tired. But I’m not too tired to skip the ice cream!!!
How was your day? Did you do anything exciting or special?
Now that I have completed the Carnival Magic 2011 scrapbook pages, I had a lot of paper I didn’t use that I needed to put up. Luckily, I have several cruise scrapbooks I need to do and a cruise on the Carnival Vista coming up, so I know these papers will be used.
I keep my paper in 12 x 12 page protectors to keep them from getting messed up. They are then placed in cubes I purchased from Michaels and Hobby Lobby. I have them separated by category. It is very easy for me to find what I need, but I still have the urge and desire to buy more!!!! So today was spent putting all the patterned paper into page protectors and putting the solid colors in the proper slots in their cubes!!! So much fun!!!
I did manage to start some wedding pages from when Jim and I got married in 2001. The only thing I have done is put the pictures on paper, but I’m not sure I like it. I will probably end of changing them to something I like better in the next day or 2. But it’s a start!!!
Tomorrow’s weekly family lunch will be at my mother’s apartment. Luckily, that means I will not be spending to much time out in the heat. I have found that this extremely high temperatures we have been experiencing is affecting me negatively due to my COPD. I have come to realize that there are some things I will have to miss. I’m hoping for cooler weather, like in the 90’s!!!! And maybe with a breeze here and there!!!. I’m sure I would be okay if I was on a cruise in the Caribbean. I know the salt air would do me good!!!!
Cheers to better days!!!
Jim and I have been married for 16 years and I am just now starting to work on our wedding pictures. I have completed our engagement photo so at least that is a start. But to be fair, I didn’t develop my scrapbook addiction until after we were married. And now, I probably have more supplies than I can use and still buy more so I can have the perfect (for me) page!
Our story is rather interesting, at least to us. You see, my husband knew my grandparents. His family had a TV store and had sold (and installed) many TVs for my grandparents over the years. Then he met my parents playing darts. When my parents and some of their friends decided to open a dart bar, my grandfather was there and Jim was rather surprised to see him there. In the conversation they had, he found out that my grandfather was my mother’s father.
Several years later, I started playing darts. I met Jim and he asked me what brought me to the dart bar. I told him that my parents owned the place so he quickly asked me who my parents were and so I told him. He then realized who my grandfather was and had some stories about him to share!!!
Jim and I became good friends. I knew that if I ever wanted to go somewhere, I could always call and ask him and if he wasn’t doing anything, he would always meet me wherever I wanted to go. For years, he would ask me out and I would decline because I didn’t want to change the scope of our friendship. But then one night, I had a dream about him and that dream convinced me to let my guard down and take a chance. Our first date was on January 8, 1999 when we took my son Wesley to the movies for his birthday. We went to see Patch Adams!!!
We have been together ever since and I must say, it was the best dream I have ever had.
Our engagement picture was, I’m sure, taken by my sister-in-law, Sharon. It was taken at the August (1999 family birthdays when Jim told his family of our engagement. At that time, we had not set our wedding date, but we knew we wanted to be married before the end of the year.
My plan is to start working on our wedding scrapbook pages tomorrow… at least that is my plan!!!!
our life reality 